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Nottage, August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry and Dominique Morisseau, but fresh and emerging voices such as Will Power.

nonbinary playwrights, the majority of whom would be BIPOC artists— black, Indigenous and people of color.

That mission has carried over at times to CTG’s other stages, including the Ahmanson, where the recent Broadway revival of Charles Fuller’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning thriller A Soldier’s Play, starring Norm Lewis, runs through June.

The changes have not just given space to established playwrights including Fuller, Hall, Lynn

In June and July, CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theater stages Power’s Fetch Clay, Make Man, inspired by the friendship of Cassius Clay and Hollywood star Stepin Fetchit. LeBron James’ Spring-Hill Company partners with CTG to produce it; Debbie Allen makes her company directing debut.

CTG has taken deliberate steps to find new and young playwrights at colleges and in workshops. Its reading series Not a Moment, But a Movement, was formed in collaboration with Watts Village Theater Company and the Fire This Time Festival to celebrate Black voices.

Theaters need to recognize that offering diverse programming is not just about hearing new voices but about building audiences, Hall points out.

“It’s so clear moving towards the future that thinking about a more diverse audience, thinking of supporting stories from all corners of the world, is actually better business for everybody,” she says.

“Come on—don’t you want to cultivate and develop an audience that is so underserved? And, oh my God, when they get into those seats, they’re going to be loyal!”

Programming a diverse season leads to a richer experience for all theatergoers, says Gregg T. Daniel, a director, actor and faculty member at the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

At A Noise Within, Daniel has been directing the company’s exploration of August Wilson’s entire American Century Cycle.

The Pasadena theater might have a reputation as a white institution,

World

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but, he says, “The audience’s reaction has been extremely positive and supportive of seeing these stories they would not normally have seen on those stages.”

The stories, not only by Blacks but from a full representation of playwrights, are American stories, Daniel says.

“All these stories belong to America, and to not represent them with their fabric and the texture, we’re robbed of something. We’re all missing something.”

CTG is finding new ways to bring in new audiences, Davis says. One follows the lead of playwright Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, with designated Black Out Nights when the entire audience is Black.

“We can be very intentional about welcoming

[a specific audience] and say, ‘This is a space for you,’” Davis points out.

“With Black Out Nights, we’ve been able to do that very successfully and be part of the fabric of the city, to become so much bigger than just what’s on our stage.”

One play that featured a Black Out Night was the Taper’s recent revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, directed by Daniel.

His project can i touch it?, about the politics of Black hair, plays through mid-June at Rogue Machine Project.

With his lengthy resume, Daniel notes that efforts to present Black stories on stage are not new for his peers: “We’ve been doing the work all along. It’s not that we just dropped in and started servicing these communities. We have been doing the work for decades.”

Like Hall, Daniel is hopeful what’s happening now will stick.

“There’s an awareness and I hope it lasts—I hope it’s actually systemic and not performative. It’s why you suddenly see a wealth of [diverse] material—theater companies are beginning to rethink their seasons, their makeup.

“It seems like they’re getting the message.”

reprogrammed !

Performances Magazine unveils a digital program platform for shows and concerts

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NO RUSTLING PAGES, no killing trees . . . Of all the innovations to have come out of the pandemic, the new Performances program platform, accessed on any digital device, may be least likely to disappear in the foreseeable future. Not only had its time come—it had been long overdue.

Performances provides the programs for 20 SoCal performingarts organizations, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Ahmanson to San Diego Opera, where the app made its debut.

The touchless platform provides cast and player bios, donor and season updates and arts-centric features. Audiences receive a link and code word that instantly activate the app; QR codes are posted, too.

Screens go dark when curtains rise and return with the house lights. Updates—repertory changes, understudy substitutions, significant donations—can be made right up to showtime, no inserts necessary.

Other features include video and audio streams, translations and expanded biographies.

For those who consider printed programs keepsakes, a limited number, as well as commemorative issues for special events, continue to be produced. Collectibles!

Meanwhile, there is less deforestation, consumption of petroleum inks and programs headed for landfills. For the ecologically minded, the platform gets a standing ovation.

Theaters and concert halls reopened after a long intermission. Stages are live, the excitement is back. Activate your link and enjoy the shows. —CALEB WACHS